Update at bottom of post: A blogger picks apart the AP story.
Just as the ladies of "The View" discussed the previous day, "The Early Show" on April 24 harped on a study that allegedly demonstrates a pay gap between men and women. Hannah Storm kicked off the report noting "women’s rights groups have declared today equal pay day." Reporter Kelly Wallace uncritically reported a study conducting by the left leaning American Association of University Women, which supports abortion rights and affirmative action. Wallace fed this information to several unsuspecting New York University female students. Although Wallace briefly mentioned that women are more likely to enter professions with lower pay, she quickly refuted it with the liberal organization’s own study.
The CBS correspondent offered no counterpoint to her story, even though there are some out there. Author Warren Farrell, in his book Why Men Earn More, noted single college-educated males in the same profession, actually earn slightly less than their female counterparts. The entire transcript is below.
HANNAH STORM: Women's rights groups have declared today equal pay day to make their point that women still earn less money than men. As CBS News correspondent Kelly Wallace reports, it's a problem that starts as soon as we start working.
KELLY WALLACE: We've come a long way, baby, but not far enough according to a new report by the American Association of University Women. It found that just one year after college, women make 20 percent less than men. Are you surprised?
KIIANA REYES, STUDENT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: Yes, it is, because we do the same amount of work in school. So it's not acceptable at all.
WALLACE: Maybe men have better grades than women. Not the case. Women, on average, have higher GPA's and still end up making less money. Ten years out, the gap widens, with women making almost 30 percent less than men.
JACQUELINE TKACH, STUDENT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: I've seen it, like my mom, all my female relatives, they've always had to struggle like that. They're in the same role as men and yet they're still paid less.
WALLACE: Sure, more women than men choose lower paid fields such as teaching or leave the workforce to care for children. But once those factors were taken into account, there was still a gap in pay. 12 percent, according to the report.
CATHERINE HILL, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN: That suggests that something else is going on. It suggests that discrimination may still be a very important problem for women in the workplace. Not only for older women, but also for young women coming into the workforce.
WALLACE: To try and narrow the gap, women say they could improve their negotiating skills and enter male dominated fields which pay more, such as engineering and business. But true pay equity, some women say, won't happen until more women are at the top.
JESSICA LONERGAN, STUDENT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: I can't imagine women are going to stand for a pay differential.
WALLACE: We hope not, right? Kelly Wallace, CBS News, New York.
UPDATE (Ken Shepherd | 16:45 EDT): Darleen's Place picks apart the AP story. (h/t Mary Katharine Ham)



















Editor at Large
Comments Policy
The only people they can fool
April 24, 2007 - 15:18 ET by mattmThe only people they can fool with this crap are people who aren't working for a living.
Umm, what other side is there
April 24, 2007 - 15:21 ET by dscottUmm, what other side is there when the skewed statistics the story is playing is the gender card??? The MSM and the various Dem factions are gathering together their target constituencies by hook or crook to get everyone to look at their special interest issues to demoralize the country on how far things have come and how good the economy is.
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius
In order to compare wages a
April 24, 2007 - 15:28 ET by jiminjerseyIn order to compare wages among the sexes you must remove all other factors. So you have to compare two people of the same age and race, holding the same job, in at least the same industry, in the same geographic area of the country, etc.. All of these factors can and will impact the results. It is basic statistics. This study doesn't do that so it is fatally flawed. Present this kind of data in the real world and you're FIRED!
There isn't any MSM bias though. I heard the same thing on FNC yesterday. I believe it was Rebecca Gomez. I don't remember who's show she was on but I do remember she stated the same nonsense you are hearing in the MSM and the host didn't challenge her.
In other words they either do
April 24, 2007 - 15:31 ET by dscottIn other words they either don't know enough to ask the proper questions, or are were too lazy to do research. Both are signs of crappy journalism.
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius
In order to compare wages a
April 24, 2007 - 18:36 ET by motherbeltIn order to compare wages among the sexes you must remove all other factors. -jiminjersey
I agree, this is impossible to do. That's why I never believe a statistic when it says it's "adjusted for other factors". There's no way to do that. The problem is you can't find a woman who has been working at the same job as a man for 15 years, because chances are she's quit for a while somewhere in there to have a baby.
If women really do the same work, for the same hours, for the same length of time as men, for 12% (or any percentage, for that matter) less, why on earth would anyone hire men????? Isn't the "bottom line" everything? Oh, I get it, <sarcasm> companies, because they are run by men, are willing to profit a little less in order to keep women down.
Motherbelt,For something li
April 24, 2007 - 20:35 ET by jiminjerseyMotherbelt,
For something like this it is impossible. But look at it on a smaller scale. Any company could perform this analysis very simply. All major companies have compensation departments. They now exactly who is getting paid what. It is illegal for a company to pay 2 equally qualified people different salaries to do the same job based on sex.
What pay gap?
April 24, 2007 - 15:32 ET by JRFrom my experience as a woman working in the male-dominated field of computer engineering, I can honestly say that there is no pay gap. I get paid just as much (or more in most cases) as the men I work with. The only "pay gap" I see is between those who go the extra mile and those who do just enough work to get by. If women want the money, then they have to be willing to work in the fields that pay the higher salaries. And they have to be willing to put in the time needed to get the job done.
Just so people understand, the "baby track" didn't slow me down at all. I stayed home and raised my son, taking college classes while he was in school. I started my career when my son was in high school, and I am now the sole breadwinner while my husband is completing his master's degree. It can be done, and it isn't as difficult as many of these "feminazi" groups (Is that the correct term?) want people to believe.
Pay Gap?
April 24, 2007 - 15:36 ET by Cool ArrowI'm sorry, I thought this was Heidi Fleiss' new book Pay As You Gap
Pay Gap?
April 24, 2007 - 15:37 ET by Cool ArrowI'm sorry, I thought this was Heidi Fleiss' new book Pay As You Gap
But that's the point, you vio
April 24, 2007 - 15:43 ET by dscottBut that's the point, you violated the first principal of feminism, you had a child, you raised that child and put your career second. The big point they were making is that the so called pay difference starts in the first year after college, which was when you and other women normally have their kids. And this is all somehow a huge pervasive problem involving a conspiracy of employers and males...holding down women as second class citizens. Never mind, most women who take the track you took made that decision, shock and horror with your spouse/partner!!!! Oh, the horrors, someone who doesn't demand instant gratification at the expense of others, someone who has no problem with delaying gratification, shutter... It's all your fault JR!!! If you would just have listened to NOW those many years ago you would be fulfilling the feminist dream. <sarcasm on> as if I needed to say that but just in case.
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius
<sarcasm>Shame on me! I
April 24, 2007 - 15:49 ET by JR<sarcasm>Shame on me! I'm a traitor to all of womanhood!</sarcasm>
This is all about abortion. O
April 24, 2007 - 15:36 ET by KC MulvilleThis is all about abortion. On an open thread last week, I mentioned an article by Cass Sunstein in the LA Times. He argued that pro-abortionists should take their cue from the dissent of Ruth Ginsburg. Ginsburg urged that women should forget the privacy argument for abortion, and change the focus to women’s equality. So, in my post, I speculated that we should all look for a wave of stories about women’s equality.
Yesterday, The View argued about the pay gap. Today it’s The Early Show. This isn’t about women. This is all about abortion.
See how the MSM falls into line, following the agenda? Maybe the next wave will be stories about violence against women. Maybe it’ll be a bunch of stories about sexist language. You can be sure, however, to see stories about how society is discriminating against women. And when you see these “women” stories, just remember … they’re just planting seeds now. This isn’t about women. This is all about abortion.
The whole idea of a real ge
April 24, 2007 - 16:08 ET by robert108The whole idea of a real gender-based wage differential just doesn't make sense, economically. If women really did the same work for less, no men would be hired until all the women were fully employed, unless the men were willing to work for "women's wages". There must be some other explanation for this. I suspect the usual leftie lying.
robert, that may be the mos
April 24, 2007 - 16:38 ET by MightyMouthrobert, that may be the most logical explanation I have ever heard about this topic!
"There are two types of people in this country; those who provide freedom and those who enjoy it." MM says...
I agree. Sadly, many people d
April 24, 2007 - 16:48 ET by JRI agree. Sadly, many people don't understand basic economics, and therefore wouldn't understand Robert's explanation.
Why men earn more than womenW
April 24, 2007 - 17:33 ET by jdhawkWhy men earn more than women
Work with Marty Nemko
For decades, we in the media have reported that women earn less than men. As a result, we've created a generation of angry women and self-conscious men.
A new book, "Why Men Earn More," by Dr. Warren Farrell, shows we've been dead wrong: For the same work, women earn more than men. His findings are based on a comprehensive review of government and other statistics.
Farrell is no right-wing misogynist. He ran for the Democratic nomination for California governor. He's the only man ever elected three times to the board of the National Organization for Women in New York City. And he's no intellectual lightweight; the Financial Times named him one of the world's top 100 thought leaders.
The book's main message is good news for women: If women do one or more of the 25 things men more often do, women can earn more than men.
Farrell does not encourage nor discourage women from doing these 25 things: "Each of the 25 usually requires trading quality of life for money. I just want women and men to be aware of their options so they can craft a life rather than just accept what drops in their lap."
The 25 can be reduced to three:
1. Choose careers that pay more. Because of supply and demand, you'll earn more by choosing a job that:
is in an unpleasant environment (prison vs. childcare facility);
requires harder-to-attain skills (hard science vs. liberal arts);
requires longer work hours (executive vs. administrative assistant);
is unrewarding to most people (tax accountant vs. artist);
demands financial risk (commission-based sales vs. government job);
is inconvenient (traveling salesperson vs. teacher);
is hazardous (police officer vs. librarian).
Many more men than women are willing to accept such jobs, even when women are paid more. For example, women sales engineers earn 143 percent of their male counterparts' salaries, yet less than 20 percent of sales engineers are women.
2. Put in more hours. That's obvious, but key. For example, Farrell cites research that "Fortune 1000 CEOs typically paid their dues with 60- to 90-hour workweeks for about 20 years. Yet women are less than half as likely as men to work more than 50 hours a week. And women are less likely to agree, every few years, to uproot themselves and their families to far-flung places to get the necessary promotions."
Why? Because women, on average, are more involved in childrearing and other domestic activities. So, if a woman (or man) expects to rise to high-paying jobs, she may need to push harder to get hubby more involved in those activities, pay for childcare and domestic services, or decide not to have children.
I asked Farrell, "But shouldn't workplaces not expect a woman (or a man) to work so many hours that family life is undercut?" He responded, "Yes, absolutely, but we must be gender-fair. If a male corporate manager chose to take care of his children, we'd applaud him but not expect the workplace to promote him as quickly. Yet when women do the same, women's advocacy organizations often expect just that. Both men and women must accept the consequences of their choices."
3. Be more productive in the hours you do work. If women produce as much as men, the good news is they will likely be rewarded. For example, women's advocacy organizations complain that female professors earn less than male professors, but Farrell cites research that among professors who produce an equal number of journal articles, "men were likely to be paid the same or just slightly less than women."
I asked Farrell, "But apart from the 25 nonsexist reasons men earn more, isn't sexism still a factor?" He responded, "There are instances of discrimination against both women and men, but on average, no. If you knew you could hire a woman for less than an equivalent man, you'd hire women to get a price advantage over your competition. Do you think businesses so hate women that they hire more expensive men even though they'd lose so much money?"
In reflecting on Farrell's book, I wonder if, rather than denigrating men for earning more, we should respect them for their willingness to do unpleasant, but necessary, work that few women will do such as roofing, coal mining or guarding a prison -- often working themselves into an early grave. There are four widows for every widower.
And men, you might learn a lesson from women and consider trading money for quality of life.
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/career/20050307a1.asp